Common Java Cookbook

Edition: 0.19

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12.1. Obtaining Commons JXPath

12.1.1. Problem

You need to use Commons JXPath to select objects from a Collection using XPath syntax.

12.1.2. Solution

To use Commons JXPath in a Maven 2 project, add the following dependency to your project's pom.xml:

Example 12.1. Adding a Dependency on Commons JXPath

<dependency>
  <groupId>commons-jxpath</groupId>
  <artifactId>commons-jxpath</artifactId>
  <version>1.3</version>
</dependency>

If you are not sure what this means, I'd suggest reading Maven: The Definitive Guide. When you depend on a library in Maven 2, all you need to do is add the dependency groupId, artifactId, and version to your project's dependencies. Once you do this, Maven 2 will download the dependency and make it available on your project's classpath.

12.1.3. Discussion

Commons JXPath provides a mechanism for evaluating XML Path Language (XPath) expressions against objects and various data structures in Java. This unconventional application of XPath to objects enables a developer to traverse, address, and filter specific nodes or locations in a complex object graph. This chapter details a few of the ways in which JXPath can be used to search, select, and filter objects.

12.1.4. See Also

For more information about Commons JXPath, see the Commons JXPath project page at http://commons.apache.org/jxpath. For more information about XPath, see the official W3C XPath recommendation at http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath.


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Common Java Cookbook by Tim O'Brien is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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